chapter four : the egg
Arianna truly felt better in the morning, and she was secretly glad that the nurse had forced her to stay the extra night. The pain was subsiding, though she knew that it would be a while before she fully got over the injury. On the bright side, she would have an incredible scar....
Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Arianna got up and changed into her clothes, noting with a grimace that her bindings were soaked with dried blood. She was about to leave and find Gianni and Cirrus, who were staying at a nearby Inn, when the nurse bustled in and insisted on changing Arianna's bindings. When that was done, the nurse released her with a gruff goodbye, and Arianna walked to the Inn, where Gianni stood, waiting for her outside.
"You know," he said, "they want you to search the Hellbird's cave for any other dragons. They don't have the guts to do it themselves. Too many have perished already."
Arianna sighed, but her face brightened when Cirrus came galloping joyfully out from behind the Inn. He was closely followed by Indigo, a beautiful blue-black creature that was still powerful and hardy, even in his old age. Both horses gave enthusiastic greetings to their riders, and the group rode off toward the location of Zirgonyrtari's cave.
It was a short climb to the cave, but each step was perilous. The horses remained at the base of the mountain while Arianna and Gianni scaled the rocky mountain face. By the time they reached the gaping hole in the rock face, their legs were numb and their fingers trembled. Had they not been used to such strenuous work, they would have collapsed long ago.
The cave was dark and damp; light seemed to shrink away from the depths, in fear of what it might bring into better relief. Arianna and Gianni, upon searching these hidden pits, found only undefineable remains of things and what looked like bloodstains, marks of hideous battles even Arianna dreaded further knowledge of.
Arianna wandered deeper into the caverns, peering around in the limited sunlight. Bones and various scratches were the only marks of Zirgonyrtari's ever having been there.
Suddenly, a sparkle caught Arianna's attention. She turned sharply, surprised. There, lying propped up against the wall, was a curious stone. It was green and speckled with yellow, and it seemed to glow, as if the sunlight had finally found something worthy of its touch.
Arianna walked over to the stone and touched it. It felt warm to her touch, and she realized with a jolt that it was not a rock -
it was an egg!
Arianna reflexively reached for her sword, but stopped. Her superior's words echoed in her mind:
If you find anything interesting there, remember, bring it back. There's always a use for such things....
Frowning in thought, Arianna leaned against the wall of the cave. The obvious choice was to return the egg to the Dragonslayer Headquarters, only about a night's ride from Yoni. However, Arianna had another idea....
She slipped the small egg - an egg far too small to have been laid by Zirgonyrtari - into her pouch, and walked slowly out to find Gianni.
Gianni was standing at the cavern opening, speaking to a short, stout little man in fine clothes and carrying a walking staff. Upon Arianna's entrance, both men looked at her and smiled.
"Greetings, Ms. Trapfoot," the short man said, beaming. "It is my honor to finally meet you!"
"Lord Sanquar is the Lord of Yoni," Gianni added, seeing Arianna's confusion.
Arianna smiled in recognition and nodded. "It is good to meet you," she said respectfully.
"Arianna," Lord Sanquar said with tears in his eyes, "you have rescued my people from a great and terrible evil. Please, accept this pouch as my humble payment." He held out his hand, displaying a beautifully embroidered silver pouch filled to the brim with gold coins.
Arianna smiled, and shook her head, causing Gianni to gasp softly in astonishment. "No," she said, "you must keep this money. Use it to heal your broken city."
Lord Sanquar opened his mouth to speak, but burst into grateful tears and bustled out of the cave and back down the mountain.
"What on earth?" Gianni asked as soon as Lord Sanquar was out of earshot. "When's the last time
you, of all people, turned down payment?"
"Because," Arianna said, "I am going to be much richer very soon. Look," she whispered, reaching into her pouch and withdrawing the egg.
Gianni gaped for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't know what you're playing at, Arianna, but that's a dragon egg, and it's dangerous. Better to just chop it up now and get it over with."
Arianna smiled and pulled the egg close. "You don't understand, Gianni," she said. "There are those who would consider an egg...invaluable. Yes," Arianna finished, smiling wider at Gianni's astounded realization, "I intend to take the egg to the fortress Antari."
"You cannot do this, Arianna!" Gianni pleaded. The two sat in Gianni's room at the Inn, and they were in a heated argument.
"I will do what I please," Arianna replied icily, clasping the green egg to her chest. "Even if it means going to Antari. Alone."
Gianni shook his head furiously. "Even those of the highest rank possible in Dragonslayer Headquarters are inferior to the
servants of Antari! Antari is legend to most commoners! It is where secret work goes on - creating new weapons, reasearching dragons -"
"
Exactly!" Arianna hissed. "Researching dragons! Do you not think that those of Antari would pay handsomely for an egg like this? I have never seen one like it...."
"But what makes you think they'll even let you in?" Gianni asked.
"Oh, please," Arianna sighed. "I'm Arianna Trapfoot! Of course they'll let me in," she snapped.
Gianni shook his head, and crossed his arms. "I don't like this," he said quietly. "Something's wrong here. This egg is not Zirgonyrtari's, so where did she get it? What will hatch out of that egg?"
"Does it matter?" Arianna cried. "I'm taking it to Antari, and you can't stop me!"
Gianni opened his mouth, as if to say something, but shut it again. Sighing, he rose, and walked to the door. "You're right," he said softly as he opened it. "I can't." With that, he left the room, closing the door behind him silently, instead of the slam Arianna would have liked to give it.
Infuriated, Arianna grasped the hilt of her sword, and, putting the egg aside, she slashed through a chair, ripping the seat in two. She stabbed the blade into the floor, and went to sit down, before realizing that that chair had been the only one in the room; Gianni had sat on it, and she on the table. Scowling, Arianna retreived the egg where it had fallen on the bed, and hoisted herself up onto the table to sulk.
Gianni would come back and apologize eventually, Arianna knew, and everything would be okay. It was always okay in the end, she thought, when it came to fighting with Gianni. These thoughts were still in her head when, hours later, she drifted off to sleep, lying down on the tabletop, the egg clutched safely in her arms.
Arianna woke the next morning to find the room still empty. Gianni had apparently come back to retreive his belongings, because they were gone, but there was no sign of the man.
Surprised, Arianna got up and changed into her travel clothes. She pulled her hair back in a high ponytal, and washed her face in a cool basin of water by the door. She slipped her sword into its hilt on her belt, and the egg dropped into her pouches soon after. After checking around the room one last time, Arianna left money to pay for the chair she had destroyed in her anger, and walked out to the paddock to find Cirrus.
Cirrus was pacing contently around his enclosure, munching on a sugar cube he'd found somewhere. Where Indigo had been previously tied, there was only a coiled rope and several gold coins.
Sighing, Arianna untied Cirrus and left her own tip to the stable-workers. She secured her saddlebags, used when she traveled long distances, and the pair rode off toward the road that led to the city of Fazath.
"Here's what we'll do," Arianna said to Cirrus, unrolling a map. "I'd rather stay on the roads as much as we possibly can, so we'll go to K'kith from Fazath. That should take a couple of nights at most. Then, the tricky part comes. We have to navigate through this wild place to Mirdryra. See, look," Arianna said, "this part's not even civilized. The best trail we'll find is a rabbit-run. But it's that or waste a month going from Fazath to Mnarth to Klir."
Cirrus whinnied his consent to the plan so far, and Arianna rolled up her current map, withdrawing another one, which looked much older.
"After we get to Mirdryra," she said, tracing a line with her finger, "we have to ride for a week or so to Pon'r Valley, where we'll gain entrance to the forests of Antari. After that..." Arianna paused. "Well, we'll see what happens then."
Cirrus shook a wisp of his silky black mane out of his eyes, and whinnied again, breaking into a gallop as Arianna, studying the first map, guided him onto a worn path. It lead through a thick forest, but the dark things dwelling within the trees didn't bother Cirrus or Arianna one bit. Their thoughts were on what lay ahead in the coming months, and the wonders they would witness when they finally reached Antari, the secret fortress of the Dragonslayers.
TO BE CONTINUED
